Long term forecast I saw shows a colder than average March and April... temperature wise I'm not so sure the lakes have hit their coldest point of the year yet. I am with you though, as good as Whitney and PK are these days I'd hate to see them have another set back.

I am not a biologist, but I did a college study on algae blooms particularly in the Brazos water shed. Too my knowledge warm winter temps did not play a big role in the golden algae blooms. The biggest contributing factor was nitrates and phosphorus caused by fecal coliform (basically cow [censored]) being washed into the river. When those numbers got high you got an algae bloom regardless of the temperature. Im sure someone will have a better answer than this, but that's all I could remember.

I am not a biologist, but I did a college study on algae blooms particularly in the Brazos water shed. Too my knowledge warm winter temps did not play a big role in the golden algae blooms. The biggest contributing factor was nitrates and phosphorus caused by fecal coliform (basically cow [censored]) being washed into the river. When those numbers got high you got an algae bloom regardless of the temperature. Im sure someone will have a better answer than this, but that's all I could remember.

I am no biologist either so I could be wrong. I just thought I had read the warmer water was a factor. I hope I am wrong. Heck chances are good I am.

Long over cast days seem to be produce the GA on Pk during the winter. Hopefully with the lake down for several years allowing some of the 0-15 ft to dry out, plus with all the water since last spring some of this stuff got flushed out of the rivers and lakes.

Hells Gate Bass Club is going to have a couple of Fishery Biologist at our club meeting on the 8th. They should be able to answer a lot of questions about the algae bloom. Anyone thinking about joining a club in our area feel free to come by.

It should help with the warmer water temp to keep the green algae up, when you have long periods of cold water the golden algae comes alive and the green dies off. With warmer water green over powers the gold.

My understanding was similar to the other guys said in that it is a competition thing. The golden algae does best in spring and fall. Other strains out compete it in summer and reduce its numbers. It also needs something to stress or kill it off causing it to release it's toxin. Cold fronts in the spring caused a small Golden Algae die off in Squaw Creek 2 years ago. Just shad and drum were affected. We were surprised because it had not had a problem in the past even though most of Squaws water comes out of Lake Granbury. Turned out a spring outage and some unusually cold weather cooled the lake down enough to make it susceptible. As others posted all of the clean rain water that has flowed down the Brazos this year should have lowered the nutrients so hopefully it will not be an issue this year.